Marking out for the hub dovetails had me feeling a bit anxious. I wanted to get these joints just right, so each stroke of the saw, and each chop with the chisel was very carefully thought out, so as to avoid any mistakes. As things fell out, I needn’t have worried. The process went very well, and the joints fitted practically perfectly…

…not to worry though, I still managed to bollocks things up in end.

It turns out that when making a hub like this, there is a specific order of operations to follow. I chose one of the wrong ones. Having cut all of the dovetails, I popped the hub on the lathe and turning it to round, well nearly to round – I left flat spots where the dovetails were so (as if it mattered).

Next, I bored out a hole in the centre. The screw was going to be 1½” in diameter, so I drilled and 1 3/8″ hole, lubricated it with boiled linseed oil and threaded it with my 1½” tap. So far, so good. Feeling insufferably pleased with myself I turned my attention to the screw. I picked out a nice piece of cherry, turned it down to a 1½” dowel on the lathe and soaked it in boiled linseed oil overnight.

The next day dawned, full of promise and possibilities, and I veritably skipped out to the workshop to embark upon what was surely to be a few hours unparalleled in productivity, serenity and satisfaction.

Having threaded the dowel, I decided to test it out with the hub. It would be a beautiful moment, I thought. A match made in heaven, I thought. A union like Aphrodite and Adonis, I thought. ‘Is the world really ready for such a momentous event?’ I thought, feeling slightly daunted by the responsibility that future history and posterity was placing upon my shoulders. No point in delaying though. No point in depriving humanity any longer. Once more unto the breach…

It turns out that I had bored the hole slightly off and the whole thing wobbled around like an elephant’s cock.